5 ms·

This is only tangentially related, but after all the posts here the last few days about thought terminating cliches, I can’t help but reflect on the “X consider

This is only tangentially related, but after all the posts here the last few days about thought terminating cliches, I can’t help but reflect on the “X considered harmful” title cliche

JadeNB 5y ago
Is it thought terminating, though? "X considered harmful" seems more intended to spark discussion in an intentionally inflammatory way than to stifle it. (In any case, this surely is tangential, since the title is not "X considered harmful" for any value of X—at best it comments on a post by that title, as, indeed, you are doing.)
MichaelGroves 5y ago
Would you say the title terminated your consideration of the article?
- legobmw99 5y ago
  No I think if anything seeing it was a response to “xargs considered harmful” made me take the authors side quicker
Zababa 5y ago
I've been thinking about titles, and it's hard to make a good one that doesn't look like a total cliché. "X considered harmful", "an opinionated guide to X", some kind of joke or reference, what could be a collection of tags (X, Y and Z), "things I have learned doing X", etc.
- ineedasername 5y ago
  In this case a less cliche/click-baity title could simply be: "A Response to Xargs Criticism"
  - Zababa 5y ago
    I think this title is fine, it's mostly that after spending some time on Hacker News all the titles start to look the same.
- zeroimpl 5y ago
  I specifically clicked on this topic because of the word “opinionated”. As I already know how to use xargs, I was curious what kind of non-conventional or controversial opinion the author might have.
  - Zababa 5y ago
    As I've said to a sibling comment, I don't think it's a bad title, and "an opinionated guide to X" is one of the better cliché for titles that I see (the worst being the journalist that feels like they have to make a joke).
abetusk 5y ago
Yes, I absolutely hate them. I was thinking of creating a "considered harmful" considered harmful rant but it already exists [0]. [0] https://meyerweb.com/eric/comment/chech.html https://meyerweb.com/eric/comment/chech.html
phone8675309 5y ago
What every X should know about Y, an opinionated take on Z considered harmful
- MonkeyClub 5y ago
  ...with an example Lisp implementation written in APL translating into 6502 assembly :)

This is only tangentially related, but after all the posts here the last few days about thought terminating cliches, I can’t help but reflect on the “X considered harmful” title cliche

JadeNB 5y ago

Is it thought terminating, though? "X considered harmful" seems more intended to spark discussion in an intentionally inflammatory way than to stifle it. (In any case, this surely is tangential, since the title is not "X considered harmful" for any value of X—at best it comments on a post by that title, as, indeed, you are doing.)

MichaelGroves 5y ago

Would you say the title terminated your consideration of the article?

legobmw99 5y ago
No I think if anything seeing it was a response to “xargs considered harmful” made me take the authors side quicker

Zababa 5y ago

I've been thinking about titles, and it's hard to make a good one that doesn't look like a total cliché. "X considered harmful", "an opinionated guide to X", some kind of joke or reference, what could be a collection of tags (X, Y and Z), "things I have learned doing X", etc.

ineedasername 5y ago
In this case a less cliche/click-baity title could simply be: "A Response to Xargs Criticism"
- Zababa 5y ago
  I think this title is fine, it's mostly that after spending some time on Hacker News all the titles start to look the same.
zeroimpl 5y ago
I specifically clicked on this topic because of the word “opinionated”. As I already know how to use xargs, I was curious what kind of non-conventional or controversial opinion the author might have.
- Zababa 5y ago
  As I've said to a sibling comment, I don't think it's a bad title, and "an opinionated guide to X" is one of the better cliché for titles that I see (the worst being the journalist that feels like they have to make a joke).

abetusk 5y ago

Yes, I absolutely hate them. I was thinking of creating a "considered harmful" considered harmful rant but it already exists [0]. [0] https://meyerweb.com/eric/comment/chech.html https://meyerweb.com/eric/comment/chech.html

phone8675309 5y ago

What every X should know about Y, an opinionated take on Z considered harmful

MonkeyClub 5y ago
...with an example Lisp implementation written in APL translating into 6502 assembly :)